Agenda

Research seminar by Pilar Velasco, University of Valladolid (Spain)
Presenting the paper "ESG and firm resilience: A sprint or a marathon?" 

Abstract
Resilience is at the forefront in companies striving to build immunity against adverse shocks. Insurance through ESG is the focus of much research, yet it has thus far been dominated by a static and insufficient characterization of the diversity of ESG patterns across companies. We reconcile prior mixed evidence by embracing a longitudinally relative approach and by accounting for two aspects of a firm's ESG engagement: its degree of regularity over time (ESG coencnsistency), and the extent to which each firm reallocates its ESG engagement across pillars (ESG adaptability). We examine how these characteristics of ESG affect firm resilience, split into two dimensions: stability (the severity of economic loss), and flexibility (time to recovery). Using a sample of U.S. listed firms, our empirical context is the COVID-19 shock. Our evidence suggests that ESG consistency and ESG adaptability improve resilience stability, but that they have no significant impact on flexibility. We further find that such dynamic aspects of ESG become more important vis-à-vis strengthening the resilience of poorer ESG-engaged companies, for which signalling the sincerity of their ESG actions plays a crucial role in prompting stakeholder support. Overall, this evidence is consistent with the view that ESG engagement is a long-term commitment in terms of providing a pay-off for firms.

Bio
Pilar Velasco is a Full Professor of Finance and Accounting at the University of Valladolid (Spain). She received her PhD in Business Economics (International Doctorate), for which she was awarded the Outstanding Merit Prize and a FPU scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education. She has held positions at the Autónoma University of Madrid, University of Alcalá, and Public University of Navarra. Her research ranges between corporate finance and strategy. Recently, her interests have expanded (albeit in an emerging way) into the art market, collaborating with art historians on a funded competitive project. She has published in journals such as Journal of Corporate Finance, British Accounting Review, Long Range Planning, Journal of Banking & Finance, Finance Research Letters, British Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, International Review of Financial Analysis, International Review of Economics & Finance, Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting, or Review of Managerial Science. She was Visiting Researcher at the London Business School and IE Business School. She has been appointed a member of research award committees (ACEDE), and reviewer for research projects for the State Research Agency in Spain, the British Academy of Management (BAM), Erasmus KA171 mobility grants for research, and professor promotions at foreign universities (German Jordanian University, University of Vaasa). She is an associate editor for BRQ-Business Research Quarterly and a member of the BAM Peer Review College. She has been principal investigator of several research competitive projects funded by Banco Sabadell Foundation, BAM Transitions Grant Scheme, and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities). She is a Deputy Director of International Relations of the Doctoral School at the University of Valladolid since 2022.